Hard disk mysteriously stolen after DU compiled attendance of law students

Delhi police have registered an FIR and launched a probe in the case. The dean told Hindustan Times on Wednesday that the thieves had allegedly stolen the wrong Central Processing Unit (CPU).

A computer’s hard disk along with its CPU was stolen from Law Faculty in Delhi University on December 3 — the day officials started compiling the attendance of faculty members and that of over 7,000 law students.

The incident came to light on December 3, a day after the law faculty started checking the attendance of students. (HT FILE)

The law faculty’s dean, Ved Kumari, in her complaint alleged that the stolen CPU contained records of attendance of both students and teachers.

Delhi police have registered an FIR and launched a probe in the case. The dean told Hindustan Times on Wednesday that the thieves had allegedly stolen the wrong Central Processing Unit (CPU).

“At the time of the alleged theft, our officials were compiling the attendance. There were two CPUs in the office of the section officer. It appears they took the wrong one. We have a back up anyway. We have not lost the data,” said Ved Kumari, dean, Faculty of Law, who had initially claimed data theft.

The incident came to light on December 3, a day after the law faculty started checking the attendance of students. Out of over 7,000 students, the attendance of around 200 students were reportedly below the minimum required attendance mark. It is mandatory for every student to have at least 70% attendance to be eligible to sit for an examination. The law faculty has its semester exam this month.

According to the dean’s complaint, at the end of the semester on December 2, faculty officials were checking the attendance of over 7,000 students at the section officer’s office. The officials had worked on the missing computer’s CPU till 9.30pm that day. When they returned the following morning, the CPU of the ‘computer on which they were working’ was missing. The dean’s complaint also reads that there was no forced entry or signs of a break-in. The officials then alerted Delhi university security officer after which the local police was informed.

A senior police officer said investigators so far have collected finger prints from the spot. Police also checked the CCTV footage but could not find any concrete evidence. Police suspect the role of an insider, who may have stolen the CPU for tampering with the attendance data.

“No other item was stolen from the officer’s room. A LCD screen is the most common item usually stolen, but these thieves did not even touch it. The lockers were also left untouched. We are probing the case,” said an investigating officer.